1. Everything in Catholic History can only be understood if we see things in the back drop of the great battle between good and evil within the soul of men; with God encouraging the good while the devil encouraging the evil. Man with his freedom is the factor who decides who will win. God, of course is unbeatable but having given man total freedom God had leveled the playing field.
2. The more man decides on God’s favor, the more powerful he becomes in his fight against the devil until such times when he is able to enter the fort of safety, the Catholic Church, where, unless he becomes extremely careless he is very safe.
3. On the other side, the more he decides in favor of the devil, he deteriorates. But God in His goodness gave man an enormous advantage over the the wiles of the devil. He gave man faculties designed to know and love Him. He has given man Divine Revelation and Tradition; and also the protection of a fort, he Church, wherewith he becomes safe because of the graces, virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit given him. And these advantages accompany man all his life and all through his history.
4. God gave all these advantages gradually at certain times in the history of man. He gave the natural law before the Old Testament; He gave the Ten Commandments during the Old Testament and gave graces, the virtues, the Beatitudes and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
5. After the New Testament, when the Master of the House went away for a journey, Satan entered the vineyard and corrupted the servants. Christ Himself, prophesied that He will certainly find many servants wicked.
6. Aside from the above helps, God gave mankind, after Pentecost, the guiding light of the office of the Holy Father and the saints He had raised to aid the Popes in leading mankind to the safe port of His kingdom.
7. All these helps had been present for mankind from the beginning of the world, now and up to the end of the world. God is faithful and these helps will always be there available and no effort on the part of the evil spirits can deny man of these helps. This is the safe way God had given man. The way is surrounded by countless danger but as long as man stays within the way he is safe.
8. But the evil spirits, true to their intelligent nature had devised an0ther parallel road, very similar to the True Way in all natural and physical aspects a perfect duplication. As St. John Chrysostom said, the devil waits for Christ to be born and then devised a false christ, he waits for the 12 apostles and devised 12 fake apostles, he waits for the Christian Church and devised a fake Christian community, he waits for the Pope and devised a fake pope, he waits for the Dogmatic and Moral theology of the Catholic Church and devised his own Dogmatic and Moral theology. The difference is so slight it takes supernatural light of the Theological Virtues to detect it.
9. The devil’s parallel road is an exact replica of the True Way …but it leads to hell.
10. The beginning of Christianity was like daylight for a trip. The way is clear even without sign posts. As Prophesied in Scriptures, and right on schedule, the devil only had to darken the sky with clouds and suddenly the two parallel roads are indistinguishable. How did the devil do that?
He understood the workings of human nature. He knew that man cannot think of two things at the same time specially if one thought is in the worldly level and the other is in the supernatural level. Man cannot think of worldly things and Godly things at the same time. If he thinks of worldly things he cannot think of divine things. And as he thinks of worldly things he becomes more and more incapable of Divine thoughts.
11. So if I were the devil all I have to do is to fill the minds of man with the things of the world. In no time he cannot see the road that leads to God, the parallel road that leads to hell becomes very clear, it even clearly appears as a road that leads to heaven. And the ‘Viator’ will confidently drive straight to hell believing he is going to heaven. What greater tragedy can happen to a soul? But God is faithful. All the aids He had given mankind is still there and will always be there. Man just have to find these helps. In part II we shall see how the devil darkened the sky. Then we shall see how God acted to save mankind in part III.